Review: A tragic night at the museum

Night At The Museum 2 (U)
Director: Shawn Levy
Cast: Ben Stiller, Amy Adams, Owen Wilson, Hank Azaria and Robin Williams
Rating: *1/2

If a film succeeds, a spin-off has to be made. If a formula works, it can be tried out again. Needless to say, the plot gets short shrift.

So, if in the first instalment, Lary Daley (Ben Stiller) found purpose as the night-watchman of the New York Museum — meeting Theodore Roosevelt (Robin Williams), Atilla the Hun (Patrick Gallagher) and all the other museum pieces that come to life — and the producers heard the ring at the box office jackpot, the second instalment simply tries to add more elements to the same chemical formula, hoping for a bigger reaction.

This time around, the action moves from the small New York Museum to the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC (probably the world’s largest such facility, with a zoo, 19 museums and nine research centres).

Not only Theodore Roosevelt, but also the large Abraham Lincoln statue at the Lincoln Memorial comes to life, as do a miniature Albert Einstein, Amelia Earhart, Rodin's The Thinker, Ivan the Terrible, Napoleon Bonaparte and... a giant squid.

In the second instalment, Daley has moved on. He has quit his night-watchman's job and become a successful businessman. The New York Museum is being redone with innovative holographs, many of its pieces being moved for storage to the Smithsonian. But Daley is still busy, though he realises something is missing in his life.

The magical tabulet that brings the museum to life is supposed to be left behind, but the mischievous monkey takes it along with him to the new museum, bringing to life the other residents, good and evil.

Kahmunrah (Hank Azaria), a pharaoh intent on conquering Earth, awakens and gathers the most fearsome specimens of humanity —Ivan the Terrible (Christopher Guest), Al Capone (Jon Bernthal) and Napoleon Bonaparte (Alain Chabat) — along with their cronies for the mission.

All it takes is one call by a distressed Jedediah Smith (Owen Wilson) to Daley, saying they are in danger from the "bad guys" at the Smithsonian, and Daley realises what he must do.

Armed with a flashlight (which he uses as a weapon) he enters the museum to save his friends. Needless to say, Daley saves the day (rather, the night) and also the world, takes the tabulet and the old pieces back to the museum and finds peace, again as a night-watchman.

This comedy is extremely unfunny. The gags are juvenile, and either use accents or the eccentricities of the villains in an attempt to be funny (Ivan the Terrible prefers "awesome" to "terrible"; Napoleon is touchy about his lack of height).

There are comedians aplenty, Stiller, Williams, Wilson and Azaria, but they don't make you laugh simply because the lines are silly.

At the end, Daley looks at Roosevelt and tells him, “I think I know, ‘One has to be happy in what one does'." I don’t think it takes nearly two hours to get this message across. In short, stay away from Night at the Museum 2.